Mycophagy

In article <912vl1$e9i$1 at pegasus.csx.cam.ac.uk>,
"Colin A. B. Davidson" <c.davidson at biotech.cam.ac.uk> wrote:
>> "Edwin Hutton" <e.hutton at ic.ac.uk> wrote in message
> news:3A34A52B.BF3A1AF2 at ic.ac.uk...> > I have to be a bit wary of shaggy parasol too, but have no trouble
> > with wood blewits. Mind you I tend to keep my consumption down to
> > no more than 4oz. at a time, following an incident many years
> > ago when I ate 8oz. of undercooked field blewits and got rid of
> > them a couple of hours later. This was a bit odd as I have had
> > no further trouble with these and they are regarded as totally safe.
>> It's not uncommon for people to find them a little indigestible. That's why
> most of the traditional recipies for them include such lengthy cooking, as
> opposed to just frying or grilling.
>I still remember a dish of blewits and steak. And as I recall, the
mushrooms cooked longer than the meat. But it was still quite good.
BTW, Lepista nuda grows readily on ryegrass straw here in the Willamette
Valley of OR. In fact, that's where I first grew it, after allowing straw
bales to sit in the rain and freeze and hail and snow, I was rather
surprised to see fairly abundant flushes of blewits, but _only_ after we
had had a fairly cold snap: about 28 degress as I recall. Since the
weather is now getting colder, I'd expect some coming on shortly.
I have also grown them on older, slightly composted grass clippings which
were cut wet, but then allowed to totally dry out, then inoculated with
some dried specimens I still had from previous feeds. Blewits dry well,
BTW. And I have often seen blewits fruiting on ryegrass straw or bales
left out in the fields, well after the last mushrooms have usually
fruited.
I have collected blewits in the middle of a hard freeze, and several have
had snow on top of them. Yet none appeared the worse for exposure. It
seems to me that they have something like fungal antifreeze in them.
Daniel B. Wheeler
www.oregonwhitetruffles.com
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